Preached Sunday, June 11, 2017 from Romans 8.18-25

Theme: Prevailing vitality in present Christian living comes from keeping our hope fixed on our future glory with Christ.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

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For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared

with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility,

not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also

will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan

within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we

were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what

he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance (Romans 8:18-25).

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As many of you know, my wife and I have been going through a struggle with her health over the past several years—and particularly so over the past six months. And though it has been a very intense struggle, we have good reason to believe that—by God’s grace—this current ‘bad patch’ will eventually lift; and that she will begin to improve sometime in the near future.

Until then, however, it has been very hard for her. She has been almost completely immobilized by her present condition; and is unable to do many of the things that she loves to do. It has been wonderful to see all the ways that you—our dear church family—have been supportive and encouraging to her. Your notes and expressions of prayer and love have been a real life-line to her. But even still, the days involve long hours of debilitating fatigue and forced inactivity. The discouragement can, at times, be very hard to fight off.

But this morning, with her permission, I’d like to share with you one of the things that often happens; and that she says truly lifts her spirits. When things are particularly hard and discouraging, I kneel down next to her, look her directly in the eyes, and tell her, “You are going to get better.” That’s not just positive thinking. We’re doing all of the things that we need to be doing; and are following the very best medical advice we can; and have sufficient experience to expect that this current setback will eventually pass. Her doctor also encourages us that she will improve. Most of all, we are trusting God and praying for her—just as you all are. And already, we see some tiny signs of improvement. But in the most difficult and trying periods—both physically and emotionally—I find myself reaffirming that hope to her: “You are going to get better.” And almost every time I do, she smiles with tears in her eyes and embraces that hope along with me.

Now; the reason I have asked her for her permission to share that with you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is because I believe that that same kind of hope is being affirmed to you and me in this morning’s passage.

You see; many of us have come here this today with great burdens on our hearts. We’re facing trials and difficulties that seem almost more than we can bear. Very often—as in my wife’s and my case—it’s because of a debilitating or frustrating physical illness that limits us. But for some of us, it may be because we feel the burden of a physical illness that has afflicted a loved one or a dear family member or friend. It may not be a physical illness, though; but rather, it may be something spiritual. Perhaps one of our family members or friends is living in rebellion against the Lord’s good path for them; and that rebellion is causing great harm and heartache to those of us who love them. It may even be that you yourself are feeling the burden of your own spiritual imperfections before the Lord; and that you are frustrated over your own inconsistencies and failures. But then, it may be that you are going through trying circumstances of some other kind—a challenge with your job; or a strained relationship; or a financial need. And of course, let’s not forget the pressure you and I feel almost every day as followers of Jesus in an increasingly hostile cultural and social environment—pressure that makes us, sometimes, just a little apprehensive about our safety and security as followers of Jesus in a fallen world.

Obviously, there may be lots of different reasons why we are feeling distressed or fearful or burdened. And in those burdens, we have the strong sense that things simply should not be this way. But I feel that the heavenly Father is, as it were, kneeling down with us in our painful time of burden this morning, is taking us by the shoulders, is looking us directly in the eyes, and is passing on real, substantial, sure hope and encouragement. He is saying to us, “Be lifted up in your heart. Don’t be afraid. Don’t give up. Keep your focus. You, My beloved child—My dear one—are going to get better!”

I feel that He is doing this through this morning’s passage.

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Now; when it comes to those of us who are in Christ, God’s promise that ‘we will get better’ isn’t based on a vain ‘wish’ or on some mere determination of ‘positive thinking’. Rather, it’s based on substantial doctrinal truth regarding what He Himself has already accomplished.

To understand the power of the promise of this morning’s passage, we need to remember what has come before it. Paul wrote this letter—the epistle to the Romans—to declare the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ; that a man or woman is declared 100% righteous in God’s sight through faith in what His Son Jesus has done for us on the cross. As it says in Chapter 3;

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:23-26).

But our salvation doesn’t only involve our deliverance from the guilt of our sins. That’s wonderful enough; but God does unspeakably more than that for us. God’s complete plan for our salvation is that we not only be made spiritually righteous in His sight, but that even our frail, fallen bodies will eventually be brought into the full state of glorification that is now experienced by Jesus our risen Savior. God does this by uniting us—body and spirit—to Jesus Christ by faith. Paul describes this as being “baptized” into Jesus—that is, being placed as it were into Jesus and completely identified with everything that happened to Him. In Chapter 6, Paul writes;

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection … (6:3-5).

That speaks of our spiritual resurrection with Jesus—that by faith in Him, we have been raised in our spirits with Him; and that we now walk in complete newness of life. We no longer walk according to the dictates of the principle of sin that used to reign in us—that is, the “flesh”; but now, we walk according to the leading and enabling of the indwelling Holy Spirit. In that respect, and in a very practical sense, we now live ‘a resurrected life’ with Jesus.

But in addition, Paul means for us to understand that ‘resurrection’ with Jesus will also happen to us physically. In Chapter 8, Paul writes;

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (8:9-11).

These poor, frail bodies of ours—so subject as they are to limitations and so prone as they are toward sin—are destined one day to be raised in glory. God the Father has so completely united us to His Son Jesus Christ by faith—both body and spirit—that even these very same bodies of ours will one day be glorified fully like His own glorified body.

So you see; when God—in this morning’s passage—takes hold of us by the shoulders and says, “You will get better!”—He really means it. That is the destiny He has saved us for. It is what He sent His own Son to accomplish for us. It will happen. He has seen to it.

But just as needs to happen now and again with my dear wife, we need to be reminded of this hope in a way that leads us to fully take hold of it. We need to apprehend the truth of it in such a way as to actually have it change our heart attitude, and to energize our daily life with a sense of vitality and joy. And as we look at this morning’s passage in Romans 8, I’d like to show you how I believe that’s to happen.

Paul uses three key phrases that I believe teach us how to grab hold of this glorious promise. You’ll find the first one in verse 18; where Paul says, “For I consider …”, or—as it is in the old King James Version—“I reckon …” It means that we ‘think’ about the promise of our future glorification in such a way as to count on it as sure and certain, and to regard it as absolutely true. Then, you’ll find the second phrase in verse 22, where Paul says, “For we know …” The word that Paul uses here is one that’s put in the perfect tense—suggesting a kind of knowledge about this glorious promises that is complete and settled and fully satisfied; a knowledge about something of which we can be absolutely sure—so sure, in fact, that we can hang our hopes for the future upon it. And finally, the third phrase is found in 25, where Paul says that this promise is something that “we eagerly wait for”. We enthusiastically anticipate it as an ongoing, habitual practice of life—continually looking ahead to it with confidence.

God has made a promise that, in Jesus Christ, we are destined to share completely in His glory. No matter what happens to us today, no matter how weak and frail we may now seem in respect to the troubles and trials of life, we will get better! And if we make the choice to reckon this to be true, learn to know it with absolute certainty, and have an ongoing eager anticipation of it, then we will live with a prevailing and overcoming vitality in our Christian lives—a vitality and joy that prompts the unbelieving people of this world to ask us for the reason for the hope that is in us.

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Now; let’s get into this wonderful passage in greater detail. Look at verse 18; where Paul says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” This is where we learn to …

1. THINK RIGHTLY ABOUT PRESENT SUFFERING.

Paul speaks here about his own thoughts about suffering. And by the way, he had a lot of experience in thinking about it, because he had done a lot of suffering. He has written about it elsewhere in the New Testament. In his efforts to proclaim the message of the gospel, he had been often arrested, often imprisoned, often beaten, often chained, often stoned, often hungry, often poor, often weary, often cold and naked, often in peril of his life, often attacked, lost at sea a few times, shipwrecked a few times, and constantly in care for the churches that he served. I mean no disrespect to anyone here today who is going through a time of suffering; but the truth is that, when it comes to suffering, Paul has got us all beat. But here, he tells us that as great as his own experience of suffering may have been as he walked upon this earth in his remarkable lifetime, he considered none of it to be worthy to be compared with the glory which was yet to come—“the glory”, he says, “that shall be revealed in us”.

And do you notice how he says that? He doesn’t say, “the glory that will be revealed—which we will merely get to see.” Rather, he says that it is a glory that shall be revealed in us. Let me share a few passages with you about this. Look for example at Philippians 3:20-21; where Paul writes;

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Philippians 3:20-21).

Think of it—“our lowly body … conformed to His glorious body”! Or look at Colossians 3:1-4; where Paul writes,

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4).

Do you realize that? When He appears in glory, then we also will appear with Him in glory! Or think about what the apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:1-3;

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:1-3).

And dear brothers and sisters; we need to think rightly about the things we presently suffer in the light of the glory that is destined to be revealed in us. We need, of course, to treat our present afflictions and trials as ‘real’; because they are real. But as real and as painful as they may be, they are nothing compared to the glory we are going to share with Jesus. In fact, they’re not even worthy to be compared with the future glory that God has in store for us—not even worthy of being put on the scales next to that glory! We need to make the choice of the will to ‘reckon’ this to be so—to ‘consider’ it to be so—and to thus think rightly about our present suffering and keep our present trials in perspective.

When we do, the truth of our future, eternal destiny—beyond this temporal time of suffering—will sustain us with joy.

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Now; in the light of that, Paul goes on to speak not just of us, but also of the whole of ‘creation’ itself. Did you know that you and I are not the only ones that long for our future glorification? In verse 19, he writes, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” And this is were we are encouraged to …

2. KNOW THAT ALL CREATION YEARNS FOR OUR GLORIFICATION.

Now; by ‘creation’, I believe Paul means for us to understand the whole realm of creation that God had entrusted to Adam and his wife Eve after He had made them and placed them in the garden. The first chapter of the Book of Genesis tells us;

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:26-28).

Adam was given charge over God’s creation. He was—and still is—its manager. This created realm was placed into a deep and profound connection to our first father Adam, and he also was placed in connection to it. But shortly thereafter, Adam’s wife sinned; and then Adam sinned along with her. They fell under the curse of sin; and God then placed all of creation under a curse along with its God-appointed manager Adam.

And from then on, creation has suffered under a state of futility and bondage—and all because of Adam’s sin. That’s why Paul goes on to say, in Romans 8:20, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it …” Creation had become—we might say—an innocent victim of Adam’s sin. Why is this created realm so violent and terrible and dangerous at times? It’s because God has placed it under a curse because of Adam’s sin.

But notice that Paul then goes on to say that it was subjected to futility and bondage “in hope”. Its present state of fallenness not a permanent situation. Do you remember, way back in Genesis 3, when God promised that the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent? That is a promise—at the beginning of the Bible’s story—of the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, into this world; who would be born into the human family as one of us, and would take the sin of Adam upon Himself on our behalf, pay the debt for us, and would remove from us the curse of sin.

And when we are completely redeemed from that curse because of Jesus—fully in body as well as in spirit—then even the creation itself will be delivered from bondage. Paul writes that it was subject to futility …

in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now (vv. 22-24).

This present state of creation is destined to give way to a new heaven and a new earth; as is told to us in the final chapters of the Bible. And that is meant to be a picture to us of what will happen to us in Christ. Just as creation was ruined by our fall, it will also be renewed by our redemption. We don’t see this yet. But the fact that creation groans and travails is a constant reminder that things are not as they should be—but that they will one day be made right.

Paul says “we know” this. And I ask: Do you ‘know’ it? Do you ‘know’ this truth about God’s plan for the renewal of this created order? Do you ‘know’ it in a settled and assured way?—so much so, in fact, that it is embraced by you as your dominant worldview? If you do, then by the declaration of it, God takes you by the shoulders, looks you in the eye, and tells you, “And as for you—My beloved one—just as is true of creation, you also will get better!”

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Now; I feel we can feel very sure of that interpretation of things. Look at what Paul says next. He says, “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope …” (vv. 23-24a).

Paul’s words about the “firstfruits of the Spirit” that we have in us is, I believe, a reference to the indwelling Holy Spirit who takes up permanent residence in us when we believe on Jesus. He Himself is the seal and guarantee of our future redemption. But even though we have this seal—this ‘firstfruits of the Spirit’—we still, for the present time, groan. We, like the creation, are eagerly awaiting the full experience of our adoption that is yet to be accomplished—that is, the redemption of our body. And this leads us to how we …

3. ANTICIPATE A STAGE OF OUR REDEMPTION NOT YET SEEN.

Paul writes in verse 24, “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” And that makes sense, doesn’t it? If our frail bodies were instantly glorified the moment we believed, then there would be no further need for hope.

And so, we are not yet at the final stage of our redemption. And thus, we must still “hope”. But “hope” here doesn’t speak of an uncertainty. It’s not like when we say that we ‘hope that the bus will show up on time’. Rather, this “hope” speaks of a sure and certain expectation based on the promise of God; without even a trace of doubt that it will happen. And so, in verse 25, Paul writes, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” Paul had put it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18;

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

And so, dear brothers and sisters; do you keep your eyes on the things that are not yet seen? Do you eagerly wait for the promise of God to be fulfilled—and do so with perseverance, even though we do not yet see with our present eyes our glorification in Christ? Do you—as a habit of life—rejoice in it and hope in it, even though you only see it through the promises of God’s word? If you do so, then, as Paul said, you will “not lose heart”.

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So; right now, we are in the phase of God’s work of our redemption in which—though glorified with Jesus in our spirit—we are still under the burden of trials in the body.

But we have God’s promise that, one day—when our Lord returns—we will be made full partakers of His glory in both body and spirit. That is our sure and certain destiny. And if we will think rightly and ‘consider’ this to be so; and if we will grow in our understanding, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to ‘know’ with absolute confidence that creation itself longs for our redemption; and if we will trust in the promises of God and look ahead with eager anticipation to that future glory that we do not yet see—then we will live, right now, with a prevailing vitality in our Christian life. Other people will see it; and they will want to know about the hope that we have.

So count on it, dear brothers and sisters. We will get better!

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